CUE Debates Curriculum

Students Say They Lack Voice

The Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) last night debated for the first time a 35-page report from five separate faculty committees responsible for evaluating proposals to revise the general education program.

All of the student members of CUE contacted yesterday said they were dissatisfied with the process by which CUE will have a chance to consider and alter the report.

Although CUE members were given copies of the report, Glen W. Bowersock, chairman of CUE, advised members not to leak the contents of the report to the press.

The Faculty Council will begin Wednesday to consider the proposals outlined in the report and will decide when to release the report to the full Faculty, various student organizations and the press, Charles P. Whitlock, associate dean of the Faculty and coordinator of the task forces, said yesterday.

Under Wraps

"Some students felt that their suggestions had not been taken seriously enough," Maxine S. Pfeffer '81, a member of CUE, said yesterday, adding that she did not think the secrecy surrounding the discussion of the report was justified.

"It seemed there was no input for student decision," William A. Groll '80, another member of CUE, said yesterday. "We had expectations that we would have more of a voice than this."

Although CUE members would not comment on the substance of the 90-minute discussion or the report because they feared this might reveal some of the report's contents, Bowersock said the debate over the report was "very animated."

Some members of CUE said yesterday that they saw no reason for keeping the report secret.

"I'd love to make this all open. I don't see why Bowersock wants to keep these meetings so closed," Groll said.

Whitlock said yesterday said yesterday he hoped the report could be made public in the next few weeks.

The report is the product of efforts of five committees the Faculty created last spring to evaluate and formulate curricula for each of the proposed core curriculum areas.

The original task force on the core curriculum recommended eight areas of study, but last spring the Faculty narrowed the list to five--Letters and Arts, History, Social and Philosophical Analysis, Mathematics and Science, and Foreign Language and Culture--in what was described as a tentative division to facilitate discussion.

At the CUE meeting Bowersock also reported that the Faculty had voted to allow greater flexibility in considering students for summa cum laude who did not meet a particular grade-point average. Bowersock said "students who had proved their merit in other ways could get 'summas' as a result of this change."

The CUE voted to send five students to the next Faculty Council meeting on Wednesday "to discuss and defend" a CUE proposal to give prizes to instructors who show outstanding teaching talents, Pfeffer said